By Joe Unsworth: So the recently beaten James DeGale has been given a great opportunity to challenge for the European belt. This is a big opportunity for DeGale, because he lost his last fight and as a result, a lot of people now doubt his credentials. I still believe DeGale has the qualities to go a long way in boxing, but how far we will have to wait and see as his weight division is one of the strongest in boxing at the moment if not the strongest.

Piotr Wilczewski is his next opponent for the European belt with a record of 29 wins (10KOs) and 1 loss. At first glance, the record suggests that Wilczewski is going to be a very tough opponent, but if you look into who he has fought, there are no real big names that prove his own credentials.

Nearly all of his fights have been in his homeland against opponents with average records, sometimes very poor records. He has fought outside his own home country once, and that was his first loss, where he was beaten by Curtis Stevens in New Jersey by TKO in the third. Wilczewski has also only won by KO 10 times out of his 29 wins, leading us to believe that he is not a big hitter so DeGale will not have to worry about any power punches coming his way.

With the fight looking likely to be held in London, things are looking bleak for the current European Champion. I am quite surprised that he has accepted to fight someone like DeGale who will be a real challenge, especially away from his home country. He must be getting a big pay day to accept a challenge such as this. I firmly believe that this fight is DeGale’s to lose. With home advantage against a fighter who has not fought anyone of note, this is a brilliant opportunity for DeGale to get his career back on track and to be crowned the new European champion and to move on to bigger and better things.